It is common for client computers to backup locally stored electronic files to remote backup systems. If a client computer loses electronic files that were backed up to a remote backup system, the client computer is able to recover the electronic files from the remote backup system.
In some conventional remote backup operations, client computers encrypt electronic files and provide only encrypted copies of the electronic files to the remote backup systems for security. In some situations, the encryption keys which are used to encrypt the electronic files are maintained only at the client computers. In other situations, the encryption keys which are used to encrypt the electronic files are sent by the client computers to the remote backup systems perhaps with the client computers temporarily caching the encryption keys during times of use.
If a user of a client computer wishes to delete electronic files from a remote backup system, the user sends a delete command to the remote backup system. One conventional approach to processing such a delete command is for the remote backup system to delete the actual electronic files from the remote backup system in response to the delete command. In a situation where a remote backup system stores (i) encrypted copies of the electronic files and (ii) the encryption keys used to create the encrypted copies, another conventional approach to processing the delete command is for the remote backup system to simply delete the particular encryption key used to create the encrypted copies from the remote backup system in response to the delete command.